In the welding of a pipe to other pipes and fittings it is essential that the two members be oriented properly with respect to one another. For example, if a flanged fitting is to be welded to one end of a pipe in such manner that the flange is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the pipe, the fitting must be located and held in such position during the welding operation. Proper orientation of pipes, elbows, tees, valves, and the like, is no less important in welding operations.
The positioning of pipes and devices to be welded thereto conventionally is accomplished by the use of one or more pipe welder's squares or straight edges. Each square comprises two legs joined together and extending at a right angle from one another. Each leg is provided with indicia which facilitates the orientation of the parts to be welded. Quite often it is necessary to use squares simultaneously, there exists a holder which is capable of holding two pipefitters's squares simultaneously. The known holder, however, comprises an essentially triangular-shaped body provided with reciprocable clamps extending beyond each of the three sides of the body so as to enable a leg of a square to occupy the space between the clamp and the adjacent edge of the body. Although such a holder does enable two squares to be supported simultaneously, it does have certain disadvantages. For example, there must be at least one clamp for each of the three sides of the body. Further, it sometimes is difficult to provide sufficient clearance to enable one leg of a square to overlie and extend beyond a leg of another square without deflecting one leg of one or both squares.